God Reveals Himself to Moses x Aaron Wright

Please turn to Exodus chapter three, where we shall read verses thirteen through twenty two. Exodus three thirteen through twenty two. Then Moses said to God, if I come to the people of Israel and say to them, the God of your fathers has sent me to you, and they ask me, what is his name, what shall I say to them? God said to Moses, I am who I am, And he said, say to the people of Israel, I Am has sent me to you. God also said to Moses, say to this, say this to the people of Israel. The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. This is my name forever. And thus I am remembered throughout all generations. Go in God, the elders together, and say to them, the Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, has appeared to me, saying I have observed you and what has been done to you in Egypt. And I promise that I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt to the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Prazites, the Hybrites, the Jebusites, a land flowing with milk and honey, and they will listen to your voice. And you and the elders of Israel shall go to the King of Egypt and say to him, the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us, and now please let us go a three days journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the Lord, our God. But I know the King of Egypt will not let you go unless compelled by a mighty hand. So I will stretch out my hand and strike Egypt with all wonders that I will do to it. And after that he will let you go. And I will give this people favor in the sight of the Egyptians. And when you go, you shall not go empty. But each woman shall ask of her neighbor, and any woman who lives in her house for silver and gold, jewelry and clothing. You shall put them on your sons and your daughters, so you shall plunder the Egyptians. Within this passage we have a strong teaching on the doctrine of God. We have a picture of the One True God and his actions towards sinful men, the God who is all life and existence comes from him. All that exists has its basis for its existence with him. Not a God who merely began the creation and then keeps to himself. No, this is a transcendent God who made the creation and then speaks into his creation. He has spoken to us. He condescends to those that he has created, making himself known through his creation and through his word. And lastly, this text speaks of a God who delivers his people. He delivers his people from their bondage so that they may be free to worship him. And we see this ultimately in the person and work of Jesus Christ. In this passage, Moses asks two questions, not just this passage, but throughout this conversation between God and Moses. He has two important questions. Here he says, who am I? And who are you? He asks two more questions, but they're not as insightful. But these first questions are really good. These are two of the most important questions that anyone can never ask. Most of us would do well to seek after a proper understanding of these questions, Who am I? And who is God? In the Institutes on the Christian Religion, John Calvin states nearly all wisdom we possess, that is to say, true and sound wisdom consists in two parts, the knowledge of God and of ourselves. He continues that a man never achieves a clear knowledge of himself unless he has first looked upon God's face and then descends from contemplating him to scrutinize himself. Only with a proper understanding of God can we properly have an understanding of ourselves and those around us. And the answer to every question that Moses asks is answered in God, either by what he will do or by who he is. When Moses asked the question who am I, he is arguing to God that he is won without the ability to accomplish the task of freeing the Hebrews from bondage. Like vot he pointed out last week, he is an old man who was rejected by the Egyptians and by the Jews. He had not strength, he had not wealth, he had no social standing in either community. So therefore, when Moses asked the question who am I to do this task? The Lord doesn't argue that Moses is anything. The Lord never points to anything within Moses as the source through which this will be accomplished and steady heartily agrees that there's nothing in Moses that can't accomplish this task. There's nothing that Moses possesses that will grant him an opportunity to be successful in this task. See. But God had been working with him, Moses. God had been working within Moses for forty years to sanctify him for this work that he had put before him. The Lord had worked to bring patience in Moses, and he had worked as he had worked for a shepherd for forty years. And the Lord had worked humility into Moses by raising him to his status in Egypt and then bring him down to a loathly state without any of the benefits that he enjoyed in Egypt. See. Moses, in his humility, stands in the perfect place for God's service. He recognizes his inability to accomplish the task at hand, and he has no other choice but to trust in the word of God by faith. The Lord has a long history of using unlikely people to accomplish his tasks. Remember Abraham, an old, childless man who was told that he would be the father of a great nation. Think of the apostle Paul, a man who persecuted the church, a man and to whom the garments of the Deacon Stephen were laid at the point of his martyrdom. Is this the man that you would have chosen to spread Christianity amongst the gentiles? Someone who church leaders were terrified merely at the sound of his name. One more modern example is that of John Bunyan, a tinkerer, a man who fixed pots and pans, A man who wrote which was until this last century the second most published book in history, and that is Pilgrim's Progress. Would you have thought an under educated man of low standing in society to be one who would have written such a book and history from a prison cell, A man whom the learned John Owen would stop to hear preach. King Charles the Second was perplexed by this, and he asked John Owen, John Owen, who was a man who had attended Oxford at age twelve to work on his bachelor's work, and then went on to his master's studies at age fifteen, why would he go to hear the preaching of a tinkerer who had no formal education past the second grade. And to this Owen responded, may it please your Majesty, could I possess the tinker's ability for preaching that I would willingly relinquish all of my learning. We see this even in Jesus Christ. God has shown foolish the wisdom of the world. Who would have thought that the savor of the world would have been the son of a carpenter in first century Palestine. The Lord purposely and commonly uses unlikely people for his work, because after his work is accomplished, only he gets the glory for the work that is accomplished. This passage, this is a passage with such a story. Moses is a man called by God in a very similar way to the apostle Paul. The Lord has almost the same conversation with the two men. He calls their name twice and they respond. The Lord declares who he is and what their mission is, and they're both quite unlikely people for the job that the Lord has given them. However, within this conversation between the Lord and Moses, we see great insight into the doctrine of God. My first point is within this passage we see evidence of the God who is the self existent, eternal God. We see that in verses thirteen and fourteen. Then Moses said to God, if I come to my people, if I come to the people of Israel and say to them, the God of your fathers has sent me to you. And they asked me, what is his name? What shall I say to them? God said to Moses, I am who I am, And he said, say to this people of Israel, I am has sent me to you. Names are of great importance in the Old Testament. They give a picture of who someone is. In modern times, names don't always have that same significance, but in Biblical times they showed someone's character. When God gave someone a name, they either became what he declared, such as in the case of Abraham, or the name was a testimony of the inherent character within that person, which is in the case with himself. When God says I am, he's communicating his attributes to Moses, attributes to set him apart from all of the pagan gods of Egypt. Hervan Bobbing points out, God is that which he calls himself, and he calls himself that which he is. Can you think of a better statement for God? I am that I am. He is, His existence and reason for existence lies within himself. No one else can say I am that I am. Everyone else has to point to someone else as the basis for their existence. And if you follow that line all the way back to the beginning, at the beginning, you will find God, I am that I am is the cosmological argument summed up into a phrase. All that has come into existence had a cause, except for the one, of course, who always existed. He had no cause. But instead he is the basis of the existence of everything else that is in existence. John Kurr points out that the name I am who I am points to God's self existence, his autonomy from creation, and his immutability. And immutability is the fact that he does not change. So first we have God is self existence. God is the God's reason for existence is contrary to everything and everyone else in existence. Because God's reason for existence is within himself, everyone and everything else in existence derives their existence from someone outside of themselves. A second sub point here is he is autonomous of his creation. I am who I am. God is not moved, and he is not stifled by his creation. He is not surprised, he does not grow tired in his work. This God stands in stark contrast to the pagan gods in Egypt, which is one of the main points of this first third of Exodus. Paganism is full of man trying to move God through sacrifice and action. Man seeks to appease and to compel the almighty God, but not the true God. He is the one who stands outside of the creation which he made. Next to the name, also communicates the immutability of God is that he does not change. I am that I am. He just continues. He doesn't change. There is no change whatsoever in the Almighty He is perfect, and the essence of all perfection dwells within him. Any deviation from perfection would be an imperfection, and so that makes any change within God impossible. The Psalmist writes in Psalm one two verses twenty five through twenty seven of Old, you laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you will remain. They will all wear out like a garment, but you will change them like a robe, and they will pass away. But you are the same, and your ears and your years have no end. Suppose that I stood exactly on the North pole, if I took a step in any direction from the north pole, it would be a step south, it would be a deviation from the precise point of the north pole. And the same is true with God. God cannot change because he is perfect. He is true perfection. In any slight modification would be a detriment to that perfection. And it's because of his immutability, his changelessness, that we have hope and his covenants. It is on account of his changelessness that we have hope and our salvation, because the completion of the covenant is not contingent upon us, but rather it is contingent upon Him who does not change. This is why Jehardio's voss also points out that the name of God points to faithfulness and his faithfulness, which is tied to his immutability. He says this, He says, this will be my name throughout the generations, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob. This is pointing back to his covenants to which the Lord word is faithful. Additionally, his name is mysterious. It points us to mystery. The use of the proper name of God, which is used in verse fifteen, is mysterious, and its baffled commentaries commentators for centuries. You see, this word has a root and a verb, ayah, which means to cause, and it's abnormal for a name to be a verb. Additionally, this word is in the third person, which also is not normal for a proper name. Actually, it's the only name in the Old Testament that is written in the third person. We could make stabs and guesses at the reason for these oddities, but with such a span of diverse and learned men who are unsure, it's best that we just rest in the most obvious explanation, which is that it conveys mystery. God is a mysterious God, and there are aspects of God that we will never fully understand, either this side of eternity or even an eternity. He is infinite and we are finite. Therefore, we shouldn't be surprised that his name contains mystery. See there's some that will point out that such mysteries are evidence that there is no God. The fact that we cannot understand everything about God, though, doesn't mean that we can't understand anything. It is a prideful skeptic that dismisses everything on a subject merely because he can't understand everything on that subject. And the last thing that we see about God in this passage is that he is a holy god. He's not common, he is distinct. The Pagans considered God to be like them, but the true God is not like his creation. This is a holy God. He does not share his glory with another. And that is why he says to Moses, which we see in verse eighteen, they will pay heed to what you say, and you, with the elders of Israel, will come to the king of Egypt. You will say to him, the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us. So now please let us go a three days journey into the wilderness that we may sacrifice to the Lord, our God. Why a three days journey? Why can't they just worship God in Egypt? I mean, right, there's people who are in Egypt right now that worship God there today. See. But this three days journey is significant to the historical context. There's some discussion amongst commentators whether the three days are actually three days or whether it means an indefinite amount of time, But I don't think that's the main focus. A three day journey here would have put them outside of the jurisdiction of Pharaoh. Pharaoh was a leader who is the leader of a particular geographical location. Pharaoh willing at one point to allow them to worship their god in Egypt. I mean, remember, Pharaoh was a polytheist. He didn't deny that there were other gods. He just wanted their worship of another god to be under his authority, or at least he had the authority over the worship of that God, and therefore that God was subject to him. See but if he allowed his slaves to leave his jurisdiction, then he would be admitting that they worshiped a god outside of his authority, and he'd be placing them outside of his authority. He'd be undermining the entire religious and class system within Egypt. Since he believed himself to be a God. That is why he would not allow them to go on this journey, and instead he said they must worship in Egypt. See but the Lord in his sovereigns, he wouldn't allow Pharaoh to believe that he had authority over the One True God, as Isaiah states in Isaiah forty two A, or as the Lord states, I am the Lord. That is my name my glory I will give to no other. The Lord declared in verse eighteen that they would worship him, and it would not be under the authority of a man who believed that he was a god. He would use the sinful pride of Pharaoh to destroy the religious, the economic, and the military systems within Egypt. From my second point, this passage shows the God who speaks, a God who condescends and speaks to a sinful creatures. The Lord is self existing, eternal, immutable. He is a holy God who is autonomous of his creation. That is clear from scripture and is logical even out of nature. But what is not clear is why this holy God condescends to man. Why does this infinite God condescend and speak to the sinful and the finite. We know he does this for his own glory, but that doesn't remove the mystery. But in this passage we see God condescending and speaking to his creature. We see this in verse fifteen. God also said to Moses, say to the people of Israel, the Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. This is my name forever and thus I will be remembered throughout all generations. God spoke to Moses. He spoke to him. Don't lose the significance of this passage. I'm surprised that more theologians don't recognize the significance of this interaction. God is speaking to a sinful man, and he's telling this sinful man how he will use him in the deliverance of a sinful people out of slavery. They deserve not this interaction. Deserve not this delivery. Then here in this passage he gives his proper name, which was given to be his name throughout the generations. This name was held in great reverence with the Jews, such reverence that they would not even speak this name. All we know are the consonants from this name in verse fifteen, which is y H w H. That's how it would transfer over into English. This is known as the tetragrammaton. When the Jews would spoke this speak this name, they would not use the vowels from this proper name. Instead, they would use the vowels from another name for the Lord, which is add and I. When they mixed the vowels from the proper name. When they mixed the vowels from Adeni with the consonants from God's proper name, it would get the word Jehovah, which is where we get that word. And that's the word that they would say when they came to that name. Even see this in most modern translations. When you look, you will see the word Lord in all capital letters. And this was a great name held in high reverence. It chused many times. And although this word is used over six thousand times in the Old Testament, it's only given here for the first time in Exodus three. It's not the first time it's ever given in the Bible. It's used many times in Exodus. But John Mackie points out that Moses is making editorial note. He's making an editorial note by withholding the name until now in Exodus. He's saying that the Jews had forgotten their God. The name is progressively used in Genesis less and less after the time of Jacob until this point here in Exodus three. This technique is also used in the Book of Esther, which is something that's normally missed by the reader, and it renders it a misunderstanding of the book. The name of God never occurs in the book of Esther, and the riot is saying that the people had fallen away from their knowledge of God. See, but you can see in the Book of Esther that the Lord's hand was still at work in the life of the people, maintaining the line of his promised sid because although the people had forgotten the covenant, the Lord had not. The story of Esther is not a happy story about a poor slave girl who just becomes a princess. See we forget the law. It was a travesty for her to marry that pagan king. That marriage was not pleasing in the side of the Lord. But God remembered his covenant that he had made with Abraham, and he preserved his people in spite of their sin. In the Book of Exodus, I believe that's Moses's point here as well. The people had forgotten their God and had fallen into paganism. Besides the fact that Moses withholds the proper name of God, we also have evidence in the fact that the Jews so quickly fell into idle worship and the wilderness when Moses delayed his coming down from the mountain. See these are slaves who left Egypt, who were free they were given gold, and since people do not normally quickly just give up that gold for someone to make an idol in worship, unless that's what they were accustomed doing, unless that's what they ultimately desired in their heart, was to worship this pagan god. Only then would it be this natural it seemed common for them. Why would all of them so quickly have fallen in the middle of the wilderness unless that is how they were worshiping God. Even Moses was one who had fallen away as well. Remember the last verse he had to ask God what is his name? It's almost like he said, well, which one are you? But even more he fell into God's raft because he didn't circumcise the sun, and that was something that was given as an outward side of the covenant, and Moses had either forgotten or he had neglected the practice. When they fell away, they desired not the God who caused them to come into existence, but rather they desired a God that they can cause to act for them. They desired a God like the pagans, which they could compel to act and to move for them. But despite their sin, God remembered his covenant with them because of his name he would not allow them to be consumed. He would not allow them to be consumed by his wrath, and he would not allow them to be consumed by the Egyptians. And lastly, he would not allow them to be completely consumed by their sin, so that they were destroyed and that the line was cut off. When God speaks to them, his speech is rooted in history. And this is contrary to the gods of Egypt, and this is contrary to every other religion in the world. As he says, the Lord of the Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. Notice how the Lord places their knowledge of him firmly in history. This is something that would do a great many cult leaders well knows that God didn't just tell Moses that he should arrive and tell them that everything has been corrupted and that they should now follow these new instructions that he has received from God. See those who follow the Mormon teaching of Joseph Smith or the Islamic teaching of Muhammad would do well to come to this recognition. Both of those men came forward saying that everything before them was corrupted, and that God had sent them forward with a new and a true revelation. No historical basis for their teachings, no prophecies of their coming, just a raw declaration that God had sent them. But this is not the way of the God of scripture. He comes bearing revelation on top of revelation, working within history to bring forward his eternal plan. God spoke to Moses. This infinite and holy God spoke to Moses. But here at this point where he condescended to speak to him. This is not something the Muslim God would do. Allah would never speak to humans, He would only ascend an angel instead. But the true God condescends, and he still maintains his holiness. Unlike the pagan gods, this holy God condescends the man and saves him in the midst of his slavery. He delivers in such a way that he is the only one that gets the glory. So our third point is lastly, within this passage we see a God who delivers. Let's reflect once more on the person who God is calling. God is delivering work through the hands of a very unlikely person. Moses's time in Egypt would have prepared him for the journey before him. And that might be true. You might say that perhaps the time when he was in Egypt prepared him. But God still used a very unlikely person to accomplish his work. As Moses says, who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt? So let's remember that again, he's sending someone who was rejected by his own people, rejected by the Egyptians. How would a normal slave have felt for someone walking up who had lived such a life of luxury. Well, they worked their whole life in the midst of struggle. He wasn't accepted by his own people and said he was rejected. And additionally he was rejected by the Egyptian authorities because of his betrayal and because of his murder of the Egyptian soldier. And most importantly, I would like us to remember that Moses was eighty years old. He was an old man. Don't confuse this with the times of the Prediluvian times, in which some people lived eight hundred years. His eighty shouldn't be too much different than eighty for us today. Remember Abraham and Sarah, we're both considered old at that age, and now this old man is going forward to challenge one of the most powerful people in the world in a world, and he's going to walk out unscathed. He's going to walk up to one of the most powerful people in the world with no army, no money, no real land, no real power. Don't look at the story and say, well, Moses was just a perfect person for this job. He was rejected by those he challenged, He was rejected by those he was to lead. And he was eighty years old and about to confront the most powerful person in the world, and he was going to demand that he release his entire workforce. And this the Lord accomplished so that he would receive the glory in their deliverance. God wanted Moses to trust him rather than himself. Moses asks, who am I but God? In this passage says, I am as the writer of Hebrews says in Hebrews Chapter eleven, verses twenty three through twenty nine. By faith. By faith, Moses when he was born was hidden for three months by his parents because they saw that the child was beautiful and they were not afraid of the king's edict. By faith, Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be called a son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. He considered the reproach of Christ of greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward by faith. He left Egypt, not being afraid of the anger of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible. By faith, he kept the passover and sprinkled the blood, so the destroyer of the Firstborn would not touch him. By faith, the people crossed the Red Sea as if on dry land, but the Egyptians, when they attempted to do the same, were drowned. God sent them to Egypt with the intention to free them. Remember he told Abraham that they would be enslaved for four hundred years, and then they would be released. Remember also, all the mass of wealth and the power that Pharaoh enjoyed had been given to him through the means of a Hebrew slave named Joseph. Joseph, after receiving the vision from God, told Pharaoh had to prepare for the coming famine and had to reap great economic rewards. People from all over the Middle East were bringing their gold so that Egypt would buy them and that they would get the food from Pharaoh. Pharaoh ended up owning all the land in Egypt except for the land that was owned by the priest. It is the word of God that allowed Pharaoh to make this preparation. It is the word of God that allowed Pharaoh to amass this great wealth. And he did what every sinner does with the blessing of God. He used it to sin against God all the more. See. But God had a purpose in raising them up. Remember, as it says in Romans nine seventeen, for this very purpose, I raised you up that I might show my power in you, and that my name I proclaimed in all the earth. He raised them up so that he would be crushed under the weight of his own sin, under the wrath of God, and so that his people would be free. God freeses people, but he doesn't free them empty handed, and he doesn't free them without a purpose. As it says in Exodus three, verses twenty through twenty two. In this passage, so I will stretch out my hand and strike Egypt with all the wonders that I do in it. After that he will let you go, and I will give my people favor in this of the Egyptians. I mean, you go. You shall not go empty. But each woman shall ask her neighbor, and any woman who lives in her house for silver and gold, jewelry, and for clothing. You shall put them on your sons and your daughters, and you shall plunder the Egyptians. The wording for stretch out stretch here in verse twenty is the same that you have here for let it go. So the idea is the Lord is sending his hand into Egypt to strike them, and Pharaoh is going to send them out. That is the idea of being driven out, almost out of compulsion. Pharaoh is going to drive them out. He's going to want them to leave. The Egyptians are basically going to be paying them to leave this area, and they receive payment here. They receive payment after so many years of slavery, and it's an inheritance that they're receiving from their forefather Joseph, whom God used to make Egypt rich. The Lord raised Pharaoh up, and the Lord had been raising Pharor up for a very long time, and the Lord had blessed Egypt amongst all the nations of the world, but he blessed them so that he would be glorified when they were crushed under the weight of their own sins. The freed Hebrews walking in the wilderness after the defeat of Pharaoh with the plunder of the Egyptians as a visual picture of what happens spiritually when a child of wrath is freed from the slavery to sin by the free grace of Jesus Christ and then is in dwelt with the Holy Spirit to walk in the newness of life. See Jesus Christ won the war through one decisive act upon the cross, Jesus conquered sin and death, the effect of his work. Jesus conquered sin and death and the effect of the work of the devil. Not one sword was drawn except for the one by Peter, and that's one that Christ quickly refused to accept. The Lord sent Jesus Christ because he remembered his promise that he had given in Genesis chapter three, verse fifteen, that he would send one who would crush the hand of the serpent, undoing the work of the serpent and freeing his people. As he says to the serpent and Genesis three fifteen I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hurt offspring. He shall bruise your head. He shall crush your head, and you shall bruise his heel. The Old Testament passage in Exodus gives a beautiful picture of the foreshadowing of the person and work of Christ, the God who is the one through whom God has spoken, and the one through whom God delivers his people from the bondage of sin. All of this points, all of these points drawn about God and Exodus three, can equally be drawn about Jesus Christ in the New Testament. He is the greater Moses who freeses people from the slavery to sin. So my fourth point is Jesus Christ is the God who is, as it says in John one verses one through four, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made. That has been made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. As John says, in the beginning was the Word. He always was, He has always existed, and he has life within himself. All that has come into existence came into existence through the hand of Jesus Christ. Don't believe that Jehovah's witness that says that an angel of God was used to make this creation. See that's absurd. Angels are part of creation. It says in John one to three that all things were made through him. Are we to believe that he made himself? It's ridiculous. He didn't make himself because he has always existed. He is the eternal son of God. And the sin that we need to be freed from is something that impacts all humanity. Many will recognize their sinfullness and their absolute inability to rid themselves of their sins. And like the Lord looked not to Moses as the source for accomplishing this feat, for accomplishing the feat of freeing the Hebrews from slavery, the Lord does not look to his people to free themselves from their slavery to sin. The Lord's solution to the sinner's fate lies within himself and not within the sinner. Jesus declared that he is the I Am that Moses spoke to. He says is in John eight, verses fifty seven through fifty nine. So the Jews said to him, you're not fifty years old, and you have seen Abraham. And Jesus said to them, truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was I am. So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple. Jesus declared himself to be the eternal, self existing God, the one who has existence only in himself, the one through whom all else in existence came into existence through. It is for that reason that the Jews sought to stone him, because he was claiming to be God. It's wrong for a man to claim to be God, right, or it's wrong for a man to take to himself a title of God. For example, when the pope takes on for himself names that are only ascribed to the Trinity, such as Holy Father, Supreme Pontiff, Vicar of Christ, it is wrong because these are names that are reserved only for God. Only God the Father can properly be called Holy Father. As Jesus refers to him in his high priestly prayer in John seventeen, Supreme Pontiff translates most likely to high priest, which is a title that can only properly be held by Jesus Christ, who is the great High Priest and Vicar of Christ. Merely means substitute or representative of Christ, which is not the pope's place. That is the Holy Spirit. That is blasphemy for the pope to take these names. However, it's not wrong for God to take these names, because those are names that rightly belong to God. It was not wrong for the one who told Moses he was the I Am to tell the Jews that he is the I Am. First spoken through the burning bush, it is now being spoken through the incarnate Son of God. From my fifth point is Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, is the one through whom God has spoken. He is the Word of God, as the writer of Hebrews says in Chapter one, verses one and two. Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets. But in these days he has spoken to us by his son, whom he appointed their heir of all things, through whom he has also created the world. We have heard the story of Christ's incarnation since childhood, and in hearing the story so many times it can lose its significance. There is a danger and familiarity with stories that we lose the awe of the God that we speak of. See, we must keep a proper understanding of who we are and who God is. We should not We should stand in awe that God spoke to Moses in the burning bush. That action should be something that is significant in our minds. There should be something that draws us into deep contemplation that he would do this. God condescended to man, and he spoke to him. We should never just casually read over Exodus three. But what's even more significant is not merely that God condescended to speak to sinful man, but that he condescended and clothed himself in the flesh of humanity, as John writes in Chapter one, verse fourteen. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. And we have seen his glory, glorious of the only son from the Father, full of grace and truth. That is one of the greatest mysteries in the Bible. The Pharisees were right to think that it was astounding that Jesus could eat with prostitutes and tax collectors. We should all be astounded that he did this, but they erred in not having the same awe when he ate with them. It was amazing that Jesus ate with tax collectors and prostitutes, and it's likely it's likewise amazing that he ate with the self righteous, as Paul writes in Second Corinthians, Chapter five, verses twenty one through chapter six, verse one, for our sake, he made him to be sin, who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. Just as the Lord pointed to himself alone as the solution for the freedom of the Hebrews in captivity, and ultimately to himself for their substance, subsistence in the wilderness, and even to himself for their blessings and the promised land, so does he point to himself to free us from our captivity, to sanctify and sustain us and our journey toward our eternal rest. In the New Testament, Jesus Christ is the son of God who delivers, and that is my last point. Moses states in Deuteronomy verse eighteen, verses fifteen through nineteen. The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me among you from your brothers. It is he to whom you shall listen. See. This is Jesus Christ, and he is the one who declared I am the Way, the truth in life. He said, I am the life of the world. I am the doord to the sheep. I am the good Shepherd. I am the Resurrection and the Life. Says, I am the Bread of life. I am the True Vine. The story of Moses, Pharaoh and the Hebrew Slaves points to the greater deliverer. The entire story is a presentation of what Jesus Christ does spiritually in the lives of the believer. Jesus's use of I am in these passages is significant. Leon Morris points out that the form that he uses emphasizes deity. It is in the same Greek phrase ago amy, which is written in the Septuagint, which is the Old Testament, which is rendered in Greek in three point fifteen, where he says I am, it says ago am, which is the same words that he is using here in the New Testament. Jesus is pointing to himself as being the great I Am. He comes speaking of himself as the solution to all of man's problems on account of their slavery to sin. Just as it was Yahweh and Exodus three who is the source of all of the Jews deliverance and subsistence, it is Jesus who is the deliverer for the sinner and the sustainer of the saint. Philip Reichen points this out. Just as the Hebrews were freed from slavery and given gifts upon their freedom, so does Jesus Christ grant us gifts when we are freed from our sins. See it was required in the law that Hebrew slaves be sent off with gifts during their slavery, when their slavery was over. We see this in Deuteronomy fifteen, Verses twelve through fifteen. If your brother, a Hebrew man or Hebrew woman is sold to you, you shall he shall serve you six years, and in the seventh year you shall let him go free from you. And when you let him go free from you, you shall not let him go empty handed. You shall finish. You shall furnish him liberally out of your flock, out of your threshing floor, and out of your wine press. As the Lord is, as the Lord your God has blessed you, you shall give to him. You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God redeemed you. Therefore I command you this today. Now this requirement protected them from further falling into slavery again, since now they had something to fall back upon, and more importantly, it pointed to the work of the Holy Spirit and the life of the believer. This, additionally, is what happened when they returned from their captivity from Babylon and Ezra. One. We see they did not return empty handed, but they were returned with gold and silver and everything that was necessary to rebuild the walls of the city and the temple. Well, the same is true with Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is freed us from our slavery to sin, but he doesn't just merely free us. He gives us the gift of his Holy Spirit that keeps us from falling back into slavery into sin, and it enables us to do kingdom work, which is worship to God. The Lord gives us his spirit as an earnest payment of the greater reward that we will have in glory. The rewards the Hebrews received was merely a foretaste of what was awaiting them in the Promised Land. And the gift of the Holy Spirit is but an earnest payment on what we have a waiting for us in glory. In fact, all of the blessings that we have in this life are but a foretaste of what we have a waiting for us in glory. And like the Israelites who passed through the Red Sea unscathed, the children of God will pass through judgment unscathed, because they are rapped in the protection of Christ's righteousness. And those who are not rapped and the righteousness of Christ will pass through the same judgment that the believer passes through. But the weight of the righteousness of God will come crashing down on them, like the weight of the water of the Red Sea, that water that fell upon Pharaoh and the Egyptian Pharaoh in the Egyptian army. And they shall not stand. They shall not stand under the weight of the wrath, and they shall therefore be crushed and destroyed. Actually three twelve states. When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain. They were delivered for a purpose. God did not deliver them just for the purpose of being delivered, but rather he delivered them so that they would worship him. And likewise, Christian, you are freed from sin, not so that you'll have your best life now, but rather so that you will worship the God who made you, the God who delivered you from your bondage to sin. Don't forget you were delivered for a purpose. The Israelites were delivered for the purpose of worshiping God. The book ends in worship, just like the Book of Revelation, as we heard earlier, ends in worship. We are delivered from our slavery to sin so that we can worship the one who delivered us. Let's you remember the same as true. This is true with us. Paul writes of this in Ephesians chapter two, verses eight through ten. So oftentimes we stop reading at verse nine, where Paul writes, for by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing. It's a gift of God, not a result of works. So that no one can boast. And then he goes on to say in verse ten, for we are as workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand, so that we would walk in them. And again he states in Romans twelve to one. I appealed to you, therefore, brothers, by mercies of God, to prevent your bodies as a living sacrifice wholly and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. You were saved from sin and delivered from your bondage for the purpose of worshiping God, worshiping God through word, through thought, and through deed. The Jews were called out of slavery in Egypt that they may serve God in the wilderness, as Moses writes in Exodus seven sixteen, and you shall say to him, the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, sent me to you, saying, let me people go that they may worship me in the wilderness. And we are set free from sin, that we may worship God in this wilderness now, which is our lives, as Paul writes in Romans Chapter six, Verses seven, seventeen and eighteen. But thanks be to God that you were once slaves of sin, have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness, just like the Lord freed the Hebrews from their slavery to Pharaoh so that they would be free to serve in The Lord. Likewise has freed you from your slavery to sin, so that you are free to serve him now as a slave to righteousness. Just as God used the time and the wilderness as a preparation for the Jews before their entrance into the Promised Land. So that is the purpose of this life now, since we have the Holy Spirit who is working within us to conform us to the image of his son, his son who is lovingly awaiting the arrival of his bride. How Church, may we strive in worship of this covenant, of this God, this covenantal God, during our time in the wilderness, not spending our days complaining and coveting, but rather worshiping God with joy and thanksgiving, never forgetting his word, never forgetting what his word has taught us about Him and about us, and about the land that He has a waiting for us in glory. Let's go to the Lord Might's father. You are sovereign, and you are holy, and you have demonstrated your hand you work through this word that you have given us, this word that has the same story over and over and over through these sixty six books. This story that does not become rot, that does not become old. May it not this story of your people who were made in your image and who fell into sin, and to whom you have condescended towards and to whom you have delivered. Oh Father, may we not covet the things of this world. May we not be walking around this life like the Jews who are in the wilderness, who were receiving bread falling from heaven and yet were complaining they didn't have meat. Father, May we be satisfied in Christ, the true bread from Heaven, who has come down to deliver us, and who has come down to be our sustenance, who has come down as our provider during this time in this wild in his journey. May we desire, May we await this time where we will be united fully with You and this glorious promised land that you have a waiting for us. And may we not love the wilderness more than that land. But rather, may we put our focus towards you and toward your word, towards your service. And may we not be idle with our time, or with our thoughts or with our words. And I pray this in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen,